Now this seems plausible and would like to see - IMO Eddie Howe would be an excellent and exciting appointment.

If you stand back and look objectively what he has achieved at Bournemouth;

Promotion to the top flight first time in their history 2014/15
5 years in the Prem
Limited budget
Average attendance - what 10K?
Top finish 9th 2016/17

OK may end this year - but done brilliantly to keep them up for 5 years with such limited resources and unlike us playing good football through the majority of that period.

He had a tough time at Burnley before returning to Bournemouth in 2012. But he’s far more experienced now and has 5 years of Prem experience under his belt..

A season or so ago I predicted he would be off to either Sours or Arsenal - but in that time maybe he’s stock has waned a little - so we could be a good fit - good for both parties.

If Bournemouth do go down could bring Ryan Fraser and David Brooks with him..!!

Maybe even move Roy “upstairs” for a year to work with him and put DF out to grass..!!

COYP

This thread was starting to go so well.

It's the same situation for all teams, worse for teams still in the FA Cup. All managers now have 5 subs from a possible 9 they can make use of. We have an aging team and aren't giving fringe players a chance and hardly ever use subs. Soft tissue injuries are inevitable based on that approach. We aren't rotating the players. We've also had Schlupp and Townsend return from injury over lockdown. The manager can't simply claim to be unlucky, it's a soft excuse.

I read an interesting analysis of the game by Mourinho.
Essentially he was saying the game has four phases - defence, attack and the transitions from one to another.
In his view what separates the best from the rest is how they manage the transitions.
Under Hodgson we usually defend well and get back in a good defensive shape in transitions when our attacks break down.
However, it could be argued we don’t manage the other 2 phases well.
In this I have some sympathy with Hodgson as he hasn’t really got the tools at his disposal to manage the transition from defence to attack, in particular if Zaha is off the boil.
There is little pace in our midfield and attack so we appear pedestrian in our attacks.
One option I suppose would be to play more directly as we did under Pulis and Allardyce but Hodgson appears reluctant to employ this tactic.
If we do inject more pace into the team through acquisitions, in particular in the attacking areas , it will be interesting to see if we play more progressively.

I would put lack of pace down as one of the major characteristics holding us back. Our lack of it dictates everything we do. Jimmy Mc is terrified to get forward because he hasn’t the legs any more to get back then we have Sakho who I honestly believe is the slowest player in the whole division.

That's the worry for Steve parish.We are in the entertainment business.We are certainly not getting value for money.

Isn't that what has lead to our current predicament? Managers bought in to keep us up but can only do so if they are backed up with a transfer kitty. We now have the legacy of that. The well has run dry. Can't spend what we don't have.